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IBB NAVY OF ""^S. HS^OLUTION. 



Those who enjoy investing tho mmber thirteen with malevolent attri- 
butes will find apparent confirmation of their predilection in the story 
of the first fleet cf the rGt^-alar /jneric&n Xavy, which was created by the 
Congress of the thirteen Colonies by an act passed on December thirteen, 
and consisted of thirteen frigates. 

The first effort of the Congress of the Colonies to provide a naval 
force was the consideration of the instructions given by the Rhode Island 
Assembly to its dele^jates in Congress, in favor of building and equipping 
an American fleet, which were presented by those delegates on October 3, 
1775e. But the first vessel of the revolutionary'- Colonies vreis the unarmed 
schooner ••Quero", of Salem, llassachusetts, which, under Captain John Derby, 
sailed on April 29, 1775, carrying to England the first news of the battle 



of Lexington, and arriving there two weeks ahead of the dispatches of 
General Gates^ /t>/^^^**6^^^fe/^^^'^ ^-^^^^^^-^^-^ .a-^iL^A.- a-/(j^^' 

The first armed vessel of the P.evoliition was the "Trinity" sloop. 



which was equipped with the three pounder gunt- and swivels taken from the 
British schooner "irargaretta", captured on Jxme 12, 1775, 

Although the Colonies prepared and employed nany armed vespel?, and 
numerous privateers a OHtribu'jQd to defence and aggression during the spring 
and summer of 1775, the first of which v/ere the two sloops contributed by 
Rhode Island on June 15th of that year, it was not until December 1?, 1775 
that Congress provided for the creation of a regular fleet. On that 
sinister date, as if Inspired by a spirit of defiant temerity, it authorised 
the construction of thirteen frigates at a cost of ^"66,660 2/3 each, as 
follows:- 



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Raleigh, 32 guns, at Portsraouth, N.H. 
Hancock, 32 guns, at Salisbury, Llass. 
Boston 24 cxma, at Hawburyport, l!as8, 
Warren 32 ffims , at Providence, R. I. 
Providence 28 guns, at Providence, R.I. 
Truinb\Vil 28 guns, at Chatham, Conn, 
llontgonery 28 guns, at Poughkeepsie, 11. Y. 
Congress 24 guns, at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. 
Randolph 32 giins, at Philadelphia, Pa. 
Washington 32 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa. 
Effinghan 28 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa. 
Delaware 34 guns, at Philadelphia, Pa, 
Virginia 28 guns, at Baltimore, I'd. 

These frigates v/ere fron one hundred and thirty two to one hurx^.red er^.d 
forty feet long; about thirty-five feet bean, and drew approximately foiurteen 
feet at the bow and nearly sixteen feet at the stern. 

They v/ere amed with long twelve poiaider guns, of which they usually 
carried thirty six, and a few swivel guns* 

On November 5, 1775, Congress appointed Esek Hopkins, Connander in 
Chief of the fleet with a salrry of $125 per calendar month. 

Congress also purchased and equipped a nvmber of privately owned vessels, 
such as the Andrew Doria, Cabot, Alfred and Colunbus, 

The first tine the Continental colors were hoisted on a vessel was when 
Lieutenant John Paul Jones ran it upon the "Alfred". The synbolic foatxire 
of that flag was a rattlesnake erect, with the notto "Dont tread on nel" 
The first salute to the flag by a foreign power was given by the Dutch to 



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the colors of the "Andrew Doria", on October 17, 1776, at the Island of 
Saint Eustatiua. 

The personnel at the command of Congress v/ith V7hich to officer its 
navy was not such as to encourace a hope for the best results © The nost 
resourceful and courageous sailors were as a rule engaged in the more exciting 
and profitable enterprise of profiteering, which is attested by the fact that 
they captured fron three hundred to four hundred British merchantmen each 

year. 

On October 10, 1776 Congress created twenty-four Captaincies, On that 
list John Paul Jones, notwithstanding the conspicuous merit of his naval 
achievements, was eighteenth. He expressed his dissatisfaction thereat to 
Robert Korris, in a letter in v/hich he said "I cannot but lament that so 
little delicacy hath been observed in the appointment and promotion of 
officers in the Sea Service, many of whom are not only grossly illiterate 
but want even the capacity of commanding merchant vessels » I was lately on 
a court martial where a Captain of Ilarines made his marl?, and where the 
President of the court martial could not read the oath he attempted to 
administer." 

Hov/ fully the results justified the judgment of Jones v/ill later appear 
in the record of the calamities which overtook the navy -ivhich the Colonial 
Congress thiis created. 

On November 20, 1776, Congress provided for an addition to the regular 
Havy by the construction of the America, of 74 guns, and the frigate^ 0Lf>\^tJ^^'^'~^- 
^ Alliance, and the sloops of war General Gates and Saratoga^ -Jw* only the 



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Cn June 14, 1777 John Paul Jones again had the well deserved honor of 
hoisting on the new eighteen-gun ship Ranger, which he cornnanded, the first 
stars and stripes ever raised on a man of war. 

The Randolph was the first of the frigates to put to sea and sailed 
under Captain Nicholas 3iddle about February 1, 1777. It was follov/ed to 
sea, later in that year, by the frigates R:.leigh, Hancock and Boston, 

On July 7, 1777 the Hancock, then cornnanded by Captain Uanley, en- 
countered the British forty-four gun ship Rainbow, and was surrendered to 
that vessel after -^iring a few shots and receiving a little damage, Ker 
name was changed by the British to "Iris", Captain Lanley claimed that he 
thought the Rainbow •vma the sixty-four gun ship Raisonable, It was a dis- 
graceful affair. {Allen 1. 212.) /^ .^^^/ 7i^^ ^o^^^/j .'y' ^c^^ ^<-- -^ 
' The fVigates I'ontgonery and Congress, which were in the Hudson River *^^ 

when the British occupied Ilev/ York, were destroyed in October 1777 to i.l^H-*'^^ ^^ 
prevent their falling into the possession of the eneny. (Aii^S"!, ^T), /i*^^'^^^ 

During October 1777 while the British were occupying Philadelphia, the ^'^' 
frigate Delaware was engaged in assisting the defence of Port F.ifflin, but 
a falling tide left her aj^jround and she fell into the possession of the 
enemy, who brought a vast park of field artillery to fire upon her from 
the shore ( Allen '1, 24.':) . 

A number of vessels v;ere built or purchased in Trance, about this 
time, for the Colonial ITavy, among which was the frigate Deane of five 
hundred and fifty tons and thirty-four giins, Htii«n-r,-2e5* ) 

The Randolph net the common fate of the American frigates, when on 
i:arch 12, 1778, under Captain Ilicholas Biddle, she fought the British ship 
Yarmouth, carrying sixty-four guns, and after rendering the British vessel 
practically helpless and about tc surrender, was herself tmaccoimtably 



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blown up. Only four of her orew escaped and they were picked up five days 
after the battle, floating on a piece of the wrecks { i »P-"'"r i , "^^7) 

The Virginia was soon added to the list of our naval failures. After 
many delays she sailed from Annapolis under Captain Janes ITicholaon on 
March 30, 1778, but ran aground next morning, lost her rudder, and was cap- 
tured by two British frigates. (Aa-r*iPl>-a06 ) 

This disaster was soon followed by the destruction of the frigates 
Washin^^ton and Effinghan, v/hich v/ere burned in the Delaware River by the 
British who occupied Philadelphia, fAllftn 1 . , 2loJ 

Misfortune again displayed its relentless antagonisn to the thirteen 
colonial frigates. The Raleigh, under coonand of the capable Captain John 
Barry, was pursued off the coast of l!aine on September 2*^, 1'''76, by the 
British fifty-gun ship "Experiment", and the twenty- two gun ship "Unicorn", 
and being hopelessly overmatched tried to escape, but ran aground and was 
captured by the British. (>iie«-ir<519 ) 

The next of the thirteen to experience the malevolence of destiny was 
the frigate V/arren which became involved in the \mfortunate Penobscot River 
Expedition. It was blockaded up that stream and was destroyed to prevent 
its capture. (5ii«a Ii7-4&&) . 

The frigates Boston and Providence v/ere the next to meet disaster and 
were captured at Charleston, South Carolina, v/hon General Lincoln surrendered 
that city to the British on Hay 11, 1780. ^<tUea_l,»^4-W ) . 

While the regular navy met with such a humiliating experience, the 
naval prestige of the colonies was maintained and the British llerchant 
Marine terrorized and depleted by over 2000 privateers carrying about 18,000 
guns and nearly 7o,poo of the Colonies most daring and competent seamen. 
(Allen 1, 47) 




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At the end of 1780 the Trumbull v.-ag the only one loft of the thirteen 
original frigates, and v/ith the frigates Alliance, the Confeneracy and 
Deano, ^*w fc l <g i sloop of war Saratoga, constituted the entire refnilar . ^., ^ 

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Continental Kavy afloato ^^^ A^t^^t^v^ ^^ ^ 

On April 15, 1781, the Confederacy, under Captain Harding, v/as over- 
taken by the British forty-four Gun ship Roebuck, and the thirty-two ^jun 
ship Orpheus, and having no chance of escape or defence, surrendered. 

The Trumbull v/as the lant of the thirteen to STiccxanb, She was partly 
wrocked in a storn on August 8, 1781 and while in that condition was 
assailed by two British frigates and captured. One of her captors \7as her 
former comrade the Kancock, whose name had beer, changed to "Iris"', So fate 
not only got even with the Colonies for trifling with her mystic number, but 
rubbed it in by using one of the Colonies' own clubs to punish them with. 
( Alien II, 557 ) 

The America was launched on November o, 1782 at Portsmouth, and given 
to France, but proved unseaworthj,' and was destroyed four years later. 

So unfortunate had been the experience of Congress with its regular 
Kavy that in the spring of 1783 the Colonial Navy consisted of only five 
regular vessels, of v.hich the frigate Alliance was the only vessel worthy 
of the cause. So remarkable was this vessel intrinsically, and as a factor 
In contributing to the naval prestige of the striiggling Colonies, that a 
fuller allusion to her creation and career is a diitiful patriotic pleasta*e. 



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X 



ALLIAKCK. 
The gem of the Revolutionary Navy. 

The career of the United States frigate Alliance is a striking Instance of 
the partiality of Fame. Where one American is familiar with her achievements, 
millions are neither aware that such a vessel was ever in the navy of the United 
States, nor that the United States had an organized navy during the war of the 
Revolution. Yet almost every American school boy is well informed in regard 
to the achievements of "Old Ironsides", as the frigate Constitution is familiarly 
called, whose adventures during the war of 1812 have "been the theme of hounteous 
praise in song and story,- ^h^ ^i^iC^J^ ^^*^ ^.i^^^ ^4xA-^^ ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^-^ 



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/tarrijijffftn and Httswfll.] 



Notwithstanding her modesty, the Alliance was one of the most renarkable 
sailing ships of any time, of which we have record. She was "built on the shore 
of the Merriraac River at Salisbury, Massachusetts, by John and William Hackett, 
who were engaged for two years in her construction, and was launched in the 
year 1778. 

She was one hundred and fifty-one feet long, over all,- one htmdred and 
twenty-five feet long on her keel payable; thirty^i e^ aa feet beam; a draft of 



-2- 



nine feet at the bow and of fourteen feet eight inches at the stern, and a 
measvirement of seven htmdred and twenty-fcur tons. She had an exceptionally 
sharp how for the date of her construction, and a long easy run. She was a very 
light draft vessel for her size. This feature of her mold was adopted to enable 
her to float over the bar at the mouth of the river upon which she was built. 

Her mainmast was eighteen inches in diameter at the cap, and her mainj^ard 
was eighty-four feet long, which gave her the appearance of being oversparred; 
but she carried her canvass well in all sailing v/eathers, and often when other 
ships of established reputation for ability were wont to shorter sail. 

Her construction was authorized by an Act of the Continental Congress, 




7.57 FEBT OVERALL 

123 FEET LENGTH OE KE^IL VAYAELE 
5e FJ^Zr BEAM 

IZ FUET 6 INCJmS PFPTH OP HOLP 
M FEZr SmCHESJ>]^AETArjTZJ^ 
9 FFZT p^AFT AT BOW 

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which was approved November 2C , 1776» ^'^^ provided for the building of nitw &^<'^ ^ 
other vessels of war^. n e nc of wMoh oppreaoha sL hop in Ji.u (jluulluiiL ^i^t^^'/r/i^^ 

She was named in honor of the treaty of alliance between the Kingdom of 
Prance and the United States which was concluded on February 6, 1778, and ratified 
by Congress during the following May, 

Alliance was a phenorainally fast sailer and easily handled. Jluch of her good 
fortune was due to her speed which enabled her to attain the most advantageous 
positions in a combat or to escape whenever her antagonists overmatched her in 
fighting strengtho In sailing to Kew London after eluding the British sixty-four 
gun ship Chatham which chased her near the mouth of the Delaware Bay, she acquired 
and maintained during that distance a speed of fourteen knots, or more than 



sixteen miles an hotir. Ho ship that she met could rival her in sailing in any 
wind abaft the beam, notwithstanding she was chased by several of the largest and 
speediest vessels of the British Navy, Lieutenant Brown who was an officer on 
the twenty-gun ship "da Lauzun" which was in company with the Alliance when the 
latter defeated the British frigate Sybille, expressed enthusiastic admiration for 
the sailing ability displayed by the Alliance, which, he said, "nothing could 
surpass." If her tendency to make slight leeway when sailing on the wind, because 
of her exceptionally light draught for her size, had been minimized by a center- 
board or fin-keel equipment, she would have had no contemporary rival of any size, 
nor in any wind. 

There are legends that some of the larger modern coasting schooners have approxi- 
mated her speed, and authentic accounts of much swifter progress by some of the clip- 
per ships of the period between 1850 and 1870; but that does not detract from the 
merit of the performance of the Alliance. It only demonstrates that size in ships 
as well as in other individuals which are of the same form and structure, is an 
approximate measxire of efficiency. The clipper Flying Cloud has the reputation of 
having covered 17.78 miles an hour in a spurt. The Sovereign of the Seas claimed 
a record of 17.88 miles an hour. The larger vessel can keep a steadier helm than 
the smaller one in a seaway that would jolt or yaw the wind out of the sails of the 
smaller craft, and correspondingly retard its headway. 

It would also be unfair to judge respecting the comparative speed of the 
Alliance and the transatlantic clipper ships, by the quickest trips across the 
Atlantic made by them, for the reason that the voyages of the Alliance to and from 
France were made during the stormy months, and were interrupted by the making of 
captures and other retarding circumstances. 

The Plying Cloud was two hundred and twenty-five feet long and eighteen hundred 
tons capacity, or one third longer and with two and one half times her displacement. 
The Sovereign of the Seas was two himdred and sixty feet long with a measurement of 



-4- 

about twenty fotir hundred tons, or nearly twice as long, with nearly three times 
her displacement. But it is probable that the accounts of their- speed, are more or 
less apocryphal, as flit is doubtful that they could have so far excelled the record 
in that respect of the more recent sailing yachts which were designed and groomed 
solely for racing purposes. One annalist ascribes to The Sovereign of the Seas 
an occasion when she made an hourly average record of over seventeen knots an hour 
for twenty four hours; and as he proceeds with the account, his enthusiasm increases 
vintil he expresses the opinion that in order to attain that average she must at 
times have been going at the rate of over twenty knots, or nearly twenty three miles, 
an hour I As this phenomenon is reputed to have occurred in the southern Pacific, 
it is to the credit of the narrator's self control that he stopped at that rate. 

The shortest transatlantic voyage of the Dreadnaught, which was one of the 
fastest sailing ships, is instructive in this respect, and throws material doubt 
upon such extravagant claims. On that trip, Dreadnaught sailed 2760 miles in nine 
and three quarter days, or at an average hourly rate of a little over eleven and 
three quarters miles, A maximum of sixteen miles an hour, at those times when wind 
and other conditions were most favorable, would have enabled her to do that; but that 
Ib far from the twenty three mile claim for the Sovereign of the Seas, 

The achievements of the Alliance in speed, in comparison with those vessels, is 
a remarkable tribute to the genius of her designers, who embodied in her model the 
most desirable elements of the naval art, A comparison of her maximum speed v/ith 
that of the fastest sailing record of the modern sailing yacht, is the fairest 
criterion of her celerity. On October 1.*?, 1893, the sloop yacht Vigilant, measuring 
one hundred and twenty eight feet over all, covered twenty miles from the outer mark 
to the stakeboat, before the wind, in a gale of about thirty-five miles an hour, at 
an average of fifteen and three quarters miles an hotir, which is the record for that 
class of sailing craft, but is considerably slower than the maximvim accredited to 
the Alliance, It should be considered also, in this connection, that the Vigilant 



-5- ' 

was constructed exclusively for speed; that her underbody was cleaned and polished 
for that race, and that she was in the lightest possible sailing trim; while the 
Alliance maoie her maximum speed record with her underbody foul from her long ocean 
cruising, and was weighted with her armament, ammunition and supplies. 

The armament of the Alliance consisted of twenty-eight twelve pounders and 
eight nine pounders. Four of the latter were mounted on the forecastle and the 
other four at the stern. Her armament has been variously described by different 
sinnalists. One historian relates that in her action with the Atalanta and Trepassey 
she was armed with twenty-eight eighteen pounders and twelve nine pounders. This 
misapprehension apparently arose from the shipment upon her at L'Orient, a seaport 
on the western coast of France, in April 1780, for transportation elsewhere, of the 
guns of that caliber which had been cast for the Bon Homme Richard but had been re- 
ceived too late for emplacement on that ship. A number of other writers on naval 
history refer to the Alliance as a thirty-two gun frigate; but John Hassler who was 
the mate on her at the time, states in his distry that she was armed v;ith twenty-eight 
twelves sind eight nines, and that she had ports or emplacements for forty-four guns. 

Her first commander was Captain Pierre de Landaie, who was entrusted with that 
responsibility in June 1778 as a compliment to the French nation. He was a member of 
one of the most aristocratic families of Normandy, and had been educated for the Navy 
of France in which he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant. He had circumnavigated 
the earth with the distinguished French navigator, Bougainville. When one of the 
pages to the mistress of Count de Vergennes was appointed as a Captain over him, he 
became so incensed that he sought an appointment in the navy of the United States, 
which was then at war with Great Britain, and received the command of a French 
merchantman engaged to carry supplies for the government of the United States from 
France to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, During this voyage a mutiny occurred on this 
vessel, which, when considered in connection with later experiences of the same 
Captain, seems to indicate that his temperament was not conducive to that measure 



of respect In his subordinates which discipline required, John Adams, who was 
afterward President of the United States, and who went in the frigate Boston to 
France, where he had occasion to observe de Landais, said of him, "This gentleman 
has been disappointed in love or in his ambition. He has not so much activity, 
dispatch, emd decision as I could wish. He seems not to know how to gain or preserve 
the affection of his officers, nor yet to keep them in awe," Mr, Adams also said 
that de Landais was inordinately jealous and lacked tact, but that he thought him 
honest. 




^^ y^ex^ ^^-H -<.'</ 



This, then, was the Commander of the Alliance on her first voyage, upon which 
she started from Boston on January 11th, 1779, carrying as a passenger the distin- 
guished General Lafayette, who wished to return to France to offer his services to 
the government of that coTintry, which was then at wao", and incidentally to visit 
his family and to endeavor to influence the French Ministry to further aid the cause 
of the American colonies. The Alliance arrived at Brest, on the west coast of France, 
on the sixth of the succeeding February, 

At that time it was impracticable to obtain crews of American sailors for the 
ships of the Kavy, as the service on vessels operative imder letters of marque of 



-7- 

the sereral states and of Congress, and on independent privateers, offered much 
greater opportimities for adventure, and of profit from the capture of British mer- 
chantmen, and consequently appealed more strongly to the imagination and acquisitive 
instinct of the enterprising native seamen. 

Her crew on this trip was a heterogenenxis assortment of mariners of various 
nationalities, including between seventy English and Irish sailors, who, besides their 
lack of interest in the cause of the Colonies, disliked to serve under a French com- 
mander, and were therefore not likely to patiently endure the vagaries of such a 
master as their capricioixs Captain. Ptirtherraore, many of them were prisoners of war, 
who had accepted service in the American Navy in preference to prison restraints, and 
could hardly be expected to exhibit devotion to the American cause. Their disloyalty 
was further stimulated by an act of Parliament offering a liberal bounty to anyone 
who would bring an American vessel into a British port. The friends of Lafayette 
were very much concerned for his welfare on this trip when they saw the kind of crew 
with whom he was to sail. 

The crew did not belie its appearance but gave a zest to the voyage by treating 
de Landais to the prospect of another mutiny, for which they had devised an elaborate 
program, to be carried out on the morAing of February second. ITo mere commonplace 
insubordination and murder would meet the instigation of their picturesque ferocity. 
The Gunner, the Carpenter, and the Boatswain were only to be killed. The Captain was 
to be cast afloat in the cutter, in irons, without food or water. Lafayette w^s to 
be put in irons and delivered to the British authorities. The Lieutenants were to 
be given the option of navigating the ship to some port in England or of walking: the 
plank; but the Marine officers and the Doctor were to be hanged quartered and hove 
overboard, and the poor Sailing master, whose rigid discipline had offended them, 
was to be "tied to the mizzenmast, scarified all over, cut to pieces and hove 
overboard.'* 

The proposed entertainment was discovered prematurely through an American sea- 
man whom the mutineers supposed to be an Irishman because of his brogue which he had 



S'k 




-9- 



While this squadron was cruising off Flamborough Head on that coast, it came in 
sight, about noon on the twenty- third of September, of a fleet of forty British mer- 
jhantipen under convoy of two British men of war. Upon sight of the Allied Fleet the 
nerchantmen fled in all directions and escaped, although the Alliance, if she had been 
suitably coraraanded might readily have captured a number of them. 

About seven o'clock in the evening Captain Jones ordered his fleet to engage the 
3nemy. The Pallas closed v/ith one of the British ships named the Countess of Scar- 
jorough, carrying twenty-two six pounders, and after a two hours and a half engagement 
jompelled her to surrender. The Bon Homme Richard engaged the other British vessel, 
srhich was named the Serapis, and after a desperately contested fight forced her to 
strike, although the Richard sank soon after the Serapis surrendered. 

When the order to engage was given the Alliance easily outsailed her companions 
it first, but when Captain de Landais discovered the strength of the enemy, he politely 
peered off and accorded to the other ships of the allied fleet the order of prece- 
ience into the fight. At about 9:30 o'clock in the evening, while the Serapis and 
3on Homme Richard were lashed together and fighting desperately, the Alliance ran 
Jlose to the port side of the latter and fired three braodsides which did much 



-10- 



greater damage to her than to the Serapis , and killed and wounded many of her 
crew. Many shot holes were found on the port side of the Bon Homme Richard 
which must have been -nade by the fire of the Alliance as that side of the Richard 
was never turned toward the Serapis. As it was a bright moonlit night v/hen this 
incident occurred, de Landais had no excuse for his conduct, especially as the 
contending ships were conspicuously different in color, and the Richard not only 
displayed signals to warn him of his error, but hailed him orally in the most 
energetic manner. Landais was accused of boasting in a private conversation, 
that it would have been agreeable to him if the Richard had surrendered to the 
Serapis, as he then would have captured the latter and recaptured the Richard 
and taken them both into a French port. This charge derives considerable color 
from the fact that the Alliance also fired into the Pallas and killed one of her 
crew after the Pallas had capture<^the Covmtess of Scarborough. 




The Fight between the Boiihomme Richard and the Serapis, from a paintiiiL; by Richard I'aton 

]>uring this action the Alliance was not struck by a shot from the Serapis, 
but was hit several times by shot from the Countess of Scarborough, one of which 
stuck in her side, and another struck her and bounded back into the sea. None 
of the crew of the Alliance was hit, but her shot killed one man on the Serapis. 



-11- 

After this battle the British fleet made great efforts to find the sqiiadron 
of Jones, but the latter evaded the enemy and arrived safely at the Texel, a port 
in Holland. Landais was sent to Paris under charges, and the Alliance placed 
under the immediate command of Jones. While at the Texel, Jones was offered a 
commission in the French Navy, but refused the compliment. In view of the appre- 
hension of some of the people of Holland that the presence of the American fleet 
at the Texel might lead to international conipli cat ions, Jones left Texel on the 
27th of December, and showed his coixfidence in the sailing ability Of the Alliance 
by boldly rimning past and in sight of several British fleets of observation in the 
North Sea and the British Channel, and then cruised arovtnd Ireland, during which 
he captured a brig. Thence he sailed for Corunna on the north coast of Spain, 
where he arrived on January 16, 1780. The Alliance remained at Corunna until the 
28th of January, when she sailed for Groix Roads in Prance, v;here she arrived on 
the loth of February, and was then taxen to L' Orient for a general overhauling 
which was very much needed. Jones tried to have her sheathed with copper, also, 
but Ben,iamin Franklin did not feel Jixstified in incurring the expense. 

The Irresponsibility or incompetence of de Landais was strikingly illustrated 
by the trim in which John Paul Jones found the Alliance when he took charge of her 
at the Texel, In referring to her condition at that time, he Baid, "Captain 
Landais had extended the ballast along the ceiling , from the sternpost to the stem; 
an idea that I believe he may without vanity call his own." Which not only shows 
that Jones had a vein of humor as well as valor, in his makeup, but that the im- 
practicability of de Landais was fundamental. 

Captain de Landais tried to obtain authority to again command the Alliance, 
but Benjamin Franklin refused by writing to him, "I think you so iraprodent, so 
litigious and quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that peace and good 
order, and consequently the quiet and regular subordination so necessary to suc- 
cess, are, where you preside, impossible. If I had twenty ships at my disposition 

I should not give one of them to Captain Landais." 



-11- ' 

After this battle the British fleet made great efforts to find the sqtiadrcn 
of Jones, but the latter evaded the enemy and arrived safely at the Texel, a port 
in Holland, Landais was sent to Paris under charges, and the Alliance placed 
under the immediate command of Jones. While at the Texel, Jones was offered a 
commission in the French Navy, but refused the compliment. In view of the appre- 
hension of some of the people of Holland that the presence of the American fleet 
at the Texel might lead to international complications, Jones left Texel on the 
27th of December, and showed his confidence in the sailing ability Of the Alliance 
by boldly rimning past and in sight of several British fleets of observation in the 
North Sea and the British Channel, and then cruised around Ireland, during which 
he captiired a brig. Thence he sailed for Corunna on the north coast of Spain, 
where he arrived on January 16, 1780, The Alliance remained at Corunna until the 
26th of January, when she sailed for (Jroix Roads in France, v/here she arrived on 
the loth of February, and was then taken to L' Orient for a general overhaiiling 
which was very much needed, Jones tried to have her sheathed with copper, also, 
but Ben,iamin Franklin did not feel justified in incurring the expense. 

The irresponsibility or incompetence of de Landais was strikingly illustrated 
by the trim in which John Paul Jones found the Alliance when he took charge of her 
at the Texel. In referring to her condition at that time, he said, "Captain 
Landais had extended the ballast along the celling , from the sternpost to the stem; 
an idea that I believe he may without vanity call his own," Which not only shows 
that Jones had a vein of humor as well as valor, in his makeup, but that the im- 
practicability of de Landais was fundamental. 

Captain de Landais tried to obtain authority to again command the Alliance, 
but Benjamin Franklin refused by writing to him, "I think you so irar^rudent, so 
Litigious and quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that peace and good 
Drder, and consequently the quiet and regular subordination so necessary to suc- 
cess, are, where you preside, impossible. If I had twenty ships at my disposition 

: should not give one of them to Captain Landais," 



-12- 

Nevertheless, while Jones was temporarily absent in the perfomance of another 
duty to which he had been assigned, in June 1780, de Landais, acting upon the ad- 
vice of the officious and neurotic Arthur Lee, who was then one of the diplomatic 
Commissioners from the United States to France, resumed charge of the Alliance, 
and on the 1st day of July of that year, sailed her for America with llr. Lee as a 
passenger. It was not long before the relations of Lee and his Captain became in- 
harmonious. Yet that may not have been altogether the fault of de Landais, as 
Jones who was a rather acute observer, wrote to Robert Morris in regard to the part 
of Lee in the reinstatement of de Landais, "I am convinced that Mr. Lee has acted 
in this manner merely because I would not become the enemy of the venerable, the 
wise and good Franklin, whose heart as well as head, does and will always do honor 
to human nattire." But it remains to be stated that Lee, in defense of his course 
in this matter, claimed that as de Landais' commission was still in force, he was 
therefore legally entitled to the charge of the ship. It is to the credit of 
Jones that he ndbly relieved the situation by relinquishing his claim to the command 
in order to preclude a quarrel. 

This voyage had barely begun when trouble arose in a dispute as to which of 
the hogs on the ship should be used for food. The spirit of insubordination was 
rurther stimulated, at a later period of the voyage, by the refusal of Captain de 
Landais to permit the crew to fish while the frigate was off the Banks of Newfound- 
land. Ultimately the Captain secluded himself in his cabin and petulantly refused 
to have any communication with his officers or crew. As some control of the vessel 
had to be taken, the crew assumed charge of her on the lOth of August. She was 
sailed for the remainder of the trip without orders from the Captain, under the 
navigation of Lieutenant James Degge, and arrived in Boston on the 16th of that 
month. The ship remained in Boston dtiring the remainder of 1780, during which 
de Landais and Degge were court-martialed and dismissed from the service. 



-13- 

After his dismissal, de Landaia resided dtirine the remainder of his life in 
the city of New York. His humiliation seems to have awakened in him a sense of 
propriety which was dormant during the days of his authority. He became a con- 
spicuous and familiar figure on the streets, respected for his dignity, gentleness 
and courtesy. "Sweet are the uses of adversity", when discipline occurs in time 
for the afflicted to take profit by it; but sad enough are they when the chastise- 
ment comes .too late, and leaves the chastened nothing but reflection burdened with 
repentance and regret. He died in thg.1t city in June 1818, and is buried in the 
churchyard of Saint Patrick's Cathedral there. Some kindly spirit has caused to 
be inscribed upon the marble slab which covers his remains, "To the memory of 
Peter Landais, sometime Rear Admiral in the service of the United States, who died 
June 1816, aged 87 years." 

The President of the court-martial which tried de Landais and Degge was 
Captain John Barry who had acquired distinction in the naval service by his valor, 
skill and determination, and who was destined to increase his glory and establish 
respect for the infantile American Havy, as Captain of the Alliance to whose command 
he was assigned on September 5, 1780. 

Now for the second time that matchless coTirser of the sea, v/hose deck had felt 
the directing tread of a John Paul Jones, worthily responded to the control of an- 
other commander who was more than equal to his responsibility. Barry was theoreti- 
cally and practically a thorough sailor. Although hot tempered, and sometime 
violent in the enforcement of discipline, he was just and quick to endeavor to 
placate those whom his anger offended. Upon one occasion he knocked over his 
boatswain with a small speaking trumpet for persistent bungling in setting a sail 
in an emergency; but later sought to conciliate his victim by an argument on the 
aggravating nature of the latter' s offence. He was always on familiar terms with 
his crews, and not only tolerated, but encotiraged their jokes when not subversive 
of discipline, even when such pleasantries were indulged at his own expense. 



/S/^. 




^y^^:^^ AJ/^-t'I^^ — ^ 



rrf TTliih Hxf^i 



^Tgaw- .L — -^^ 



-14- 
wae a Roman Catholic in religion, and remarkably broadminded in respect to religious 
observance on his ship. He made it a point of propriety to be present at all re- 
ligious services on board, and required his officers and crew to do the same, not- 
withstanding the Chaplain was a hardshell Presbyterian clergyman, 

Barry was born in Tacumshane, Wexford County, Ireland, in 1745, and died in 
Philadelphia, September 13, 1803. His first fight as an officer of the American 
davy was on April 7, 1776, when in command of the fourteen gun boat Lexington he 
japtured the Edward, which was a tender of the British frigate Liverpool. This 
iiras the first prize vessel ever capt^lred by a boat of that Kavy 

Barry was somewhat of a military amphibian. While he was waiting for an 
assignment to sea duty, he took part in the land-operations of the Colonial Army, 
ind rendered distinguished servi'^e at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. 

He, about that time, with a detachment carried in small boats, captured a 
British schooner in the Delaware river near Philadelphia under circumstances con- 
spicuously to his credit. 

As commander of the 32-gun ship Raleigh, he made a gallant struggle against 
bwo British frigates off the coast of Maine, in a running fight, but was obliged 
to beach his ship, which in his temporary absence, and contrary to his orders, was 
surrendered by one of his subordinates whom he had left in charge. During the war 
vith France, in 1799 to 1800, he commanded the frigate United States, and in that 
japacity captured several armed French vessels, and rendered other services in 
ceeping with his previous reputation. 

While in command of the Pennsylvania privateer twelve-gun brig Delaware, he 
vas sailing up the Delaware River, in December 1779, and v.'as hailed near the town 
)f Chester, Pennsylvania, by the American frigate Confederacy, whd>se commander, 
Japtain Barry had been informed, was impressing sailors into her crew from merchant 
ressels and from war vessels of the state of Pennsylvania, which were too weak to 
•esist such imposition. The continental naval forces often assxaned authority to 
Impress seaman of the crews of the vessels sent out by the states, Ab the brig was 



-15" 
atuggishly beating up the river past the Confederacy, the latter fired a shot 
across her bows as a siinimons to stop, and her commander ordered Barry to come to 
anchor; but Bsu:*ry ignored the hail and kept on his course. A party was then sent 
from the frigate to the brig v;ith the obvious purpose of impressing such of her 
crew as they wished, but the resolute attitude of the brig's crew deterred them, 
and they left without attaining their end. Two more shots were then fired from the 
Confederacy at the brig, which so incensed Barry that he hailed the frigate and 
asked who coomanded her. Her commander answered "Lieutenant Gregory", Barry re- 
plied, "Lieutenant Gregory, I advise you to desist. This is the brig Delaware, 
belonging to Philadelphia, and my name is John Barry." The frigate fired no morel 
Bfury had ordered his crew to get the guns ready fcr action, and told them that if 
a rope yarn on his brig should be injured by the fire of the frigate he would give 
her a whole broadside. Fortunately for Lieutenant Gregory, and for the reputation 
of the Kavy, Gregory had sailed with Barry and knew the resolute quality of the man 
with whom he was dealing. 

He was equally as alert and decisive in the discharge of what he deemed his 
civil duties as he was in those that related to his military purview. When the 
Pennsylvania delegation to the Constitutional Convention, headed by Benjamin 
Franklin, sought to induce the Pennsylvania Assembly to act upon the adoption of. 
the Constitution, and that Assembly lacked two members to make a quorum, through 
the absence of nineteen recalcitrant members, Barry persuaded a number of citizens 
to act with him in forcibly dragging two of the absentees into the Assembly v;hile 
that body was in session, they were counted as present, and thus tmv/illingly en- 
abled their state to be the first to talce steps tov/ard giving to the United States 
an organic national status. 

The first voyage of the Alliance under the command of Captain Barry, was begun 
on the eleventh of February, 1781, when she left Boston for France, carrying as 
passengers. Colonel John Latirens and suite on a diplomatic mission, accompanied by 
the gifted and philanthropic Thomas Paine, and others. The reputation of the 



-16- 

Uliance as the seat of frequent internal distTirbance, seems to have oade a deep 
Impression on the mind of her new Captain, who, before he started on this voyage, 
required his passengers to agree that they would assist him to quell any mutiny 
that might occur on the ship while they were in it. It is probable, also, that 
1 casual review of the members of his crew did not impress him with a feeling of 
ibsolute confidence in their reliability. That some such precaution was not un- 
warranted will further appear. 

The diplomatic mission of Colonel Laurens, which had been conceived by the 
ijert and fertile mind of Mr, Paine, at the period which Washington termed in a 
Letter to Franklin the "infinitely critical posture in our affairs", resulted in 
securing from the French Government a loan of six million livres to the government 
3f the United States. Two million and a half of the money so obtained was brought 
bo America in coin, and the remainder in military stores. With these supplies and 
funds the Revolutionary army was paid and equipped for the campaign which resulted 
Ln the crowning victory at Yorktown on October 19 of that year. The government of 
''ranee also guaranteed the payment of the loan of ten million livres which had been 
idvanced by Holland. The negotiations which culminated in this result were essen- 
tially conducted by Hr. Paine, v/hose services were never adequately rewarded nor 
recognized. Paine ^nobly sought to requite the help which the government of France 
:hus rendered, at his solicitation, v/hen Louis XVI was on trial, by appealing for 
:he life of the King at the certain hazard of his own, for which he was ultimately 
put in prison and marked for the guillotine, which he miraculously escaped. "Do 
lot", he plead to the revolutionary convention of which he was a member, "give the 
Snglish despot the pleasure of seeing you send to the scaffold the man who de- 
livered your American brethren from his tyranny." 

The passengers were diverted during this voyage by the capture of the British 
Privateer Alert, which carried twelve guns. Captain John Kessler, who was then a 
warrant officer on the Alliance, tells in his admirable memoirs, that Mr. Paine and 



-17- 

l French officer named Coimt de'Noaillea, who was Lafayette's brother-in-law, 
fought a duel on the ship during the voyage, hut does not give the details of the 
iffair. It would he interesting to know what amount of provocation or what kind 
3f disagreement could induce Paine to engage in a duel, in view of his pronounced 
aversion to the code and his proverbial humanity which induced hira to write one of 
lis most emphatic essays against the duelling practice. Otherwise the trip was 
vithout special incident, and the frigate dropped her anchor in the harbor of 
[,• Orient on the 9th of the following March, 

On the twenty-ninth of March, the Alliance started on her return voyage in 
jompany with a French letter-of -marque brig named Marquis de Lafayette. The next 
lay the chronic trouble of the Alliance was the cause of much anxiety aboard, when 
It was discovered that a projected mutiny had only been forestalled through the 
voluntary exposure of the plot by an American Indian, who was a member of the fore- 
castle crew and who informed the Captain of the names of three of the conspirators, 
f7ho had tried to induce him to be one of them. 

The officers and those members of the crew who could be trusted were armed and 
required to stay vcp all night. The next morning the remainder of the crew were 
Drdered to the forecastle, the booms and gangway, while the officer^ and those of 
the crew who were in the Captain's confidence manned and guarded the quarterdeck, 
the maindeck and the steerage. 

The three men who had been implicated by the Indian were triced up and flogged 
jntil they denounced twenty-five others, who were then also flogged until Captain 
Barry was satisfied that every mutineer had been discovered and that nothing re- 
nained to be disclosed about the plot. 

The potential mutineers had planned to take possession of the ship by killing 
all the officers d-uring the middle night watch, except the second Lieutenant, whom 
they intended to compel to navigate the vessel under the command of the qur.rter- 
naster, to some port in Ireland, where they would sell her and divide the purchase 



-18- ' 

money anong themselves. The plot had 'been arranged on the outward voyage from 
the United States during the preceding February, b\it the conspirators found no 
satisfactory opportunity to put it into effect. They were principally influenced 
to delay the mutiny by the falling overboard of one of the ringleaders in the 
project, which their traditional sailorman superstition construed into an unfavor- 
able omen, and induced them to defer the attack, and to throv; overboard the written 
agreement they had signed, as parties to the proposed mutiny. Three of the muti- 
neers were put in irons, and the rest returned to duty upon their promise to conduct 
themselves properly during the remainder of their term of shipment. Three of the 
crew were tried and sentenced to various punishments. Patrick Sheridan was to re- 
ceive 354 lashes; John Crawford, 50 lashes; and William KcClehany, to be hanged from 
the starboard forearm of the Alliance until dead. None of these sentences was 
carried into effect. These men were put in prison in Rhode Island, awaiting punish- 
ment, but were apparently forgotten in the excitement of the times, until a Kaval 
Agent re-discovered them in their confinement in a state of suffering from cold and 
starvation. The first-named two were shipped on the sloop of war Deane, and 
McClehany was sold to pay for the cost of his keep in jail. It is an interesting 
sidelight on Barry's treatment of and influence over his subordinates that, v/hen this 
crew was about to be paid off and discharged, they tmaniraoiis ly pleaded to be allowed 
to ship with him again. 

While in company with the ITarquis de Lafayette, on the second of the succeeding 
April, the Alliance and that vessel captured the British brig named the Mars, of 
thirty-aix guns, twenty of v/hich were 12 pounders, two 6 pounders, and fourteen 
4 pounder cohorns, and the Minerva of ten guns. The Jiars ran close aboard the 
Alliance, and without warning of any sort fired a whole broadside into her at that 
range. Her officers and crew then immediately retreated below, which so incensed 
Captain Barry that he boarded her and put all the officers and crew indiscriminately 
in irons, for committing a mxirderous assault without intending to fight. The 
"de Lafayette" then took possession of the Minerva and parted company v/ith the 



-19- 

Alliance, On the second and third days of May the Alliance captured two British 
merchantmen loaded with sugar from Jamaica, and on the sever.th of that month lost 
her maintopraast by a stroke of lightning which also severely burned and otherwise 
injured several of her crew. 

On the 28th of llay (1781), the Alliance was engaged in the most severe and 
onstinate battle of her career, in which she captxired the British ships Atalanta, 
carrying sixteen guns, and the Trepassey, carrying fovirteen guns, both of which she 
fought at the same tine. When the Atalanta carae within hailing distance. Captain 
Barry summoned her to surrender, but her Captain, whose name was Edv/ards, responded, 
"I thank youl Perhaps we may after a trial," Captain Elwards after the fight 
said that he and the captain of the Trepassey v/ere confident that they would capture 
the Alliance. All three vessels then began firing. 

The calm which prevailed prevented raanoeuvering of the Alliance, which lay on 
the ocean like a log during most of the battle. The Captains of the British 
vessels took advantage of the helpless condition of the Alliance by using sweeps to 
row their lighter craft into commanding positions athwart the stern and qviarters of 
the Alliance and subjecting her to a severe fire, to which she could not effectively 
respond. At times during the battle the Alliance could not bring any of her guns 
to bear upon her antagonists except one which was mounted at the stern. The 

British ships v/ere partly armed with carronades, a short large caliber cannon, 

// 
which three projectiles at close range and low velocity, thr^t had a smashing effect 

and did great damage to the Alliance at the short distance at which they were used 

in this conflict. Projectiles from these guns were especially destructive from the 

splintering which they caused on the opposing vessels. The extent of splintering 

on those old wooden ships was strikingly illustrated in the fight betv/een the 

Constitution and Guerrierre in 1812, when the first broadside of the former at 

forty yards, caused a cloud of splinters to fly up from the waist and deck of the 

latter, part of which was driven as high as the raizzentop, with disastrous effect 

on the latter' s crew. 



-2C- 

In this action Captain Barry was wotmded by a grapeshot which lodged in his 
shoulder, about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was carried below for stirgical 
attention, as he was suffering severely from pain. He vraa weak from the loss of 
blood, consequent upon the operation necessary to remove the ball from his 
shoulder. The colors of the Alliance were shot away, and the crews of the opposing 
vessels began cheering luider the impression that the Alliance had struck, but v/ere 
soon disabused of that delusion by the replacement of the flag. At a critical 
moment of the fight, when the Alliance was unmanageable for want of wind, and being 
severely damaged by the fire of her antagonists, one of her officers went down to 
the cockpit and informed Captain Barrj' of the state of affairs, and inquired v/hether 
he should strike his flag, Barry indignantly responded, "ITol If the ship cannot 
be fought without me, I will be carried on deck." It was at this jwicture, about 
three o'clock in the afternoon, that the wind freshened and enabled the facile 
Alliance to bring her broadsides to bear, and soon force both of her opponents to 
strike, but Barry was on his way to the deck when the battle ended. 

The Atalanta was dismasted by the fire of the Alliance, and lost six killed 
and eighteen woimded; the Trepassey lost six killed, included her Captain, and 
eleven wounded. The Alliance lost eleven killed, and twenty-four wounded. When 
Captain Edwards went aboard the Alliance he entered the cabin of Captain Barry, who 
was confined to any easy chair by wealoiess due to his wound, and presented his sword 
to Barry, who immediately gave it back with the generous remark, "I retvirn it to 
you. Sir. You have merited it, and your King ought to give you a better ship. Here 
is ray cabin, at your service. Use it as your own." In this fight the Alliance was 
not only handicapped by lack of v;ind, but by a shortage of men. Her crew had been 
seriously depleted in numbers by the manning of many prizes which she had taken on 
that cruise. 

Immediately after this action the Alliance made all sail for Boston, to obtain 
treatment for Barry's wound and for repairs to the ship which was badly shattered 

as well as short of crew, and reached that city on June 6th, 1781, notwithstanding 



-21- 

the presence of a British fleet in Ilassachusetts Bay. On Barry'? recominendation the 
Alliance was treated to a sheathing of copper below her water line, which was a much 
needed improvement. Barry left her for Philadelphia, where he was obliged to go 
for the treatment of his wound, which was seriously infected. 

A new fighting and foraging cruise for the Alliance was projected by the naval 
authorities, but the greater importance of conveying Lafayette on a mission to 
France with the object of obtaining an enlargement of the French naval force in 
American waters, prevailed, and she accordingly dailed from Boston on December 23, 
1781, carrying Lafayette, Count de Roailles and others, as p assengers, for whose 
comfort and security Captain Barry was especially enjoined by Robert Korris, to 
"make a safe and quiet passage to some port in Prance", and avoid a conflict with 
the vessels of the enemy. These instructions were very distasteful to Captain 
Barry and his crew, who would rather have gone in quest of adventure and prizes, 
notwithstanding he was authorized to cruise wherever he could promise himself the 
best chance of success in msucing prizes, after he should have delivered his dis- 
tinguished passengers at their destination. 

In disregard of these instructions, Barry's instinct to harry the enemy would 
not let him resist an impulse to capture a large British merchantman which he met 
on the way. They safely reached L' Orient on the 18th of the following January. 

While waiting for dispatches for Congress, Barry sailed from L'Orient on the 
tenth of February, 1782, in search of prizes, but returned to that port on the 27th 
of that month without having made a capture. On the 16th of the following March 
the Alliance left that port for the United States. During this voyage, and while 
off the Delaware Capes, on the tenth of May she v/as chased by the Chatham, a sixty- 
four-gun British ship, which she eluded and arrived at Hew London on the 13th of 
that month, where she remained until the 4th of the following August. When this 
chase began the wind was blowing fresh from the north, which gave the Chatham the 
advantage, as both v/ere sailing on the wind, and the Chatham's greater draught 
enabled her to sail closer to the wind than cotild the light draught Alliance. 



-22- 

The latter was therefore obliged to seek the shallower water along the shore of 
Nev? Jersey in order to keep out of range of the Chatham's guns. The Chatham was 
accompanied by a tender, v/hich during the chase sailed between that ship and the 
Alliance, to keg) the coniraander of the former vessel advised as to the soundings 
30 that he might avoid running his ship aground in following the Alliance. Finding 
that he could not safely get close enough to the Alliance to engage her he abandoned 
the pursuit. The wind soon after shifted to fresh southerly, and the Alliance con- 
tinued to New London v/ith a quartering gale, v/ithout dread of any pursuer. On the 
way she ran down the British sloop of war Speedwell, which tried to intercept her. 
The Alliance sailed from Kew London on the fourth of August, 1782, bound 
for the Bermudas. On the ninth of that month she captured two schooners from 
Bermuda, bound for Halifax, loaded with stigar and molasses, and later took a number 
of other vessels with merchandise. On the nineteenth she arrived off the harbor 
of St. aeorges, in the Bermudas, and Captain Barrj' sent word to the Governor that, 
unless the American prisoners of war confined there v/ere ser.t on board of the 
Alliance, he would blockade the port for three weeks. But he was enticed av;ay by 
the prospect of making prizes, and left the Bermudas on the twenty-fifth of that 
month for a cruise in the vicinity, in which he was engaged for the next five days, 
and then sailed for the Newfoundland Banks, where the Alliance arrived on September 
tenth. On the 18th she capti^ed and sunk a British brig, and during the next few 
d^ys captured several other vessels. Meeting with some storm damage, she sailed 
on the 28th for L' Orient for repairs, and arrived there on the 17th of October with 
four of her prizes, which sold for six hundred and twenty thousand, six hundred and 
ten pounds sterling, which was enough to pay for all the ships th: t the navy of the 
United States lost during the Revolutionary War, and for her ovm construction many 
times over. Here again the penchant of the Alliance for the development of 
mutinous demonstrations was manifested, and several of her officers refused to obey 



')! -23- tl 

orders unless they were paid. The offenders v/ere put under arrest and less ex- 
perienced aembers of the crew were promoted to the vacancies so made. 

Midshipman Keasler relates that when the Alliance arrived at L'Orient and the 
prisoners captured during the cruise were sent ashore, the parting "between them and 
the officers and crew of the Alliance was lilce the separation of old friends. The 
prisoners left with great reluctance. They had been treated with much consideration 
and care by their captors, and were not only grateful for the hospitality they re- 
ceived, but were abashed to reflect upon the difference between their treatment and 
that which v/as then usually accorded by their nation to American prisoners of war. 

The lure of the sea again enticed Captain Barry to seek the raging main for 
adventure and service. He took the Alliance out of the harbor of L'Orient on 
December 9, 1782, bound for Martinique, where she arrived on the Sth of the follow- 
ing January, Barry there found orders to go to Hfivana. On the way to Havana, 
the Alliance showed her fast fading heels to a British fleet, and later to a British 
seventy-four, v/hich was accompanied by a frigate. 

The Alliance left Havana on March 7, 1783, with a large amount of specie 
aboard, which was to be used to found the Bank of Korth ijnerica. She was accompanied 
by a twenty-gun ship named the Due de Lauzun, after a distinguished General of the 
French army, which had been purchased for the American navy, and v/as ccnmanded by 
Captain Green, and also carried a large amount of specie, on the same account. On 
March loth, thay were chased by the British frigates Alarm and Sybille, and the 
sloop of war Tobago, The Alliance under shortened sail to keep her between the 
sluggish de Lauzun and the Sybille, was closely follov/ed by the Sybille, commanded 
by Captain James Vashon, and received a shot from the latter which lodged in the 
Captain's cabin. The Lauzun was such a poor sailer tiiat, at Barry's sviggestion, 
her Captain lightened the ship by throv/ing overboard nearly all of her guns and 
putting the specie she carried, and Mr. John Brown, the Secretary of the Board of 
Admiralty, aboard the Alliance for safety, ^he ran off before the v?ind, but so 
slowly that Barry felt obliged to interpose the Alliance between her and the 
Sybille to aid her to escape. A fifty-gun French ship soon appeared and layto. 



r. 



-24- 
in the vicinity, while the Alarm and Tobago also kept at a distance; as if all 
three were willing to leave to the Alliance and Sybille all t?ie hazard and glory 
the prospective conflict would involve. The Alliance and Sybille had a severe 
action for about forty-five minutes, v/hen the latter sheered off, very much injvired 
in her hull, sails and rigging, her guns silenced, and only her musketry fire con- 
tinuing, with a loss of thirty-eight killed, and fifty wounded. The Alliance had 
three killed, and eleven wounded. As illustrative of tJie solicitude and diligence 
of Barry in the performance of duty, one of his officers relates thfit during this 
action he "went from gun to gun on the maindeck cautioning against too much haste, 
and against firing until the enemy was right abreast." When the Sybille withdrew, 
her cftnsorts joined her in her retreat. The French frigate then approached the 
Alliance, but too late to afford the cooperation v/hich a short time sooner v/ould 
have enabled Barry to capture all three of the British ships, v/hich they then chased 
but could not overtake because of the inability of the French vessel and the Lauzun 
to keep up with the Alliance. 

This v/as the last naval engagement between British and American ships during 
the war of the Revolution. When this action occurred the British frigate Triumph 
v/as bearing to America the preliminary treaty of peace v/hich had been signed at 
Paris on Koveraber 7^0, 1'782, to be followed by the definitive treaty of Versailles, 
of September 3, 1783, by which Great Britain recognized the independence of the 
United States. The advantages of modern facilities for transmitting information 
at long distance? over difficult physical obstacles, woiild in that case, as well as 
in the case of the battle of Hew Orleans, both of v/hich transpired after peace had 
been diplomatically established, have saved the hundreds of lives v/hich were lost 
in those conflicts because of the delay in conveying the notification of the cessa- 
tion of hostilities. Hews must have travelled alov/ly then, not to have reached 
Barry while he was at L' Orient, as he did not sail from that port for nine days after 
the treaty of Paris was signed. 



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The captain of the French seventy-f otir gave as his reason for not going to the 
assistance of the Alliance while she was engaged with the Sybille, that he supposed 
that the Alliance had teen captured by the British vessels, and that the si^Tials 
from her for him to close in with his ship v/ere a decoy to get him in the power of 
the British fleet. He also said that he had $l,oro,000 in specie on his ship v;hich 
he hesitated to subject to the risk of battle. 

The Alliance and her companions separated off Cape Hatteraa, and the Alliance 
sailed for Newport where she arrived on the 20th of March. She thence went to 
Providence, Uhode Island, v/here her crew was discharged and her naval career prac- 
tically terminated. 

After the Alliance arrived at Providence, Captain Barry went to Philadelphia 
by v/ay of New York, While at the latter city he visited the Sybille which was 
lying there, and was cordially entertained by her commander. She still bore the 
marks of the damage which she had received in her battle with the Alliance, and her 
officers told him that she had never been so roughly treated before that action. 

During the Summer of 1761, Captain Barry was directed by the Agent of Marine 
to take the Alliance and the frigate Deane on a cruise and use his judgment as to 
the locality, duration and nature of his venture. The preparation of the Deane 
for that service was so long delayed that on October 17 the Marine Agent Instructed 
Barry to make the cruise with the Alliance alone; but the surrender of the British 
army at Yorktown, about th^t time, resulted in the abandonment of the project and 
the retention of the ships in port. 

After the war there was a strong sentiment in Congress in favor of keeping the 
Alliance in the Navy, One of the committees of that body reported on January 15, 
1784, that "the honor of the flag and the protection of the coast required her con- 
tinuance in the service," But Congress, which v/as then in such pressing need of 
money that it was unable to pay the arrears due the soldiers of the revolutionary 
army, decided, after long debate, to subordinate both sentiment and common sense 
to cash, and directed that she be sold. If she had been retained, the United 



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states might then, under such a Coinmander as Barry, have made short v/ork of the 
interference of the Barbary pirates with American comnerce in the Keditterranean. 
Nevertheless she was put up at auction at Philadelphia, on June ?rd, 1785, and 
bought by Benjarain Eyre, a ship carpenter, for two thousand eight hundred and eighty 
seven poxmds sterling. Eyre sold her to Robert Eorris, who converted her into a 
merchantman and sent h(jr to Norfolk, Virginia, whence she sailed to Bordeaux with a 
cargo of tobacco. In 1787 she retxirned to Philadelphia and in June of that year 
sailed for Canton, China, under Captain Thomas Reed, and returned on September 17, 
1788, after having circumnavigated the Earth, and discovered several islands en 
route. Her last voyage was to Cadiz, Spain, v/ith a cargo of flour, during 1789, 
from v/hich she returned to Philadelphia the same year. 

She was in Philadelphia on April 20, 1789, when General George Washington 
passed through that city on his way to Hew York City to be inaugurated as President 
of the United States, and was profusely decorated in honor of that occasion. 

She was sold for old material in the spring of 1790, and beached upon Petty's 
Island, in the Delaware River near Philadelphia, where she was broken up and her 
timbers allowed to rot in the mud; a monument of the indifference of republics to 
the fate of their benefactors. The relics were visible at low tide as recently as 
1901, when they were removed in the exectition of some dredging operations for the 
improvement o^ the river. Such was the inglorious ending of the career of the most 
efficient ship of the first navy of the United States, which, ovang to its speed 
and mobility, and the skill v.dth which it was generally commanded, but especially 
its speed, was the only frigate of that navy which escaped destruction or capture. 
V/hile the Eurrenuer at Yorktown was the pretext I'or the abanuon- 
raant of the British claim to autnority ovor the United Colonies, the dom- 
inant circumstance which constrainau the British ^-overnment to conceue tha 
inudp.ncience of the Colonies was the inroaa or oijr privateers ana IJavy i.pon 
Britisn Gommdrc.., ana the inability of the British navy to protect th« mer- 
chantmen of Great Britain from such aeprauat i ons. It was the vulneraUlity 
01' England to such isolation that enter.-u most eiiectunlly into the con- 



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